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UN.GIFT, Stop the Traffik unwrap GIFT boxes in London

UN.GIFT and the NGO
Stop the Traffik jointly launched the
GIFT box project in London last week ahead of the
2012 Olympic Games. GIFT boxes are public art installations aimed at raising awareness about victims' experiences of being trafficked.

The Qatari Ambassador in London HE Khalid Rashid Salim al-Hamoudi al-Mansouri and
UNODC Chief, Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling Section, Ilias Chatzis cut the ribbon on the first GIFT box, which unwrapped to reveal trafficking for forced labor. Additional boxes contain information on trafficking for domestic servitude, street crime and begging, and sexual exploitation.

The boxes are being installed at high-profile venues around London; to find a box during the Olympics and Paralympics click
here. Volunteers will be on hand at all boxes to answer questions about the project, and provide visitors with further information on how to get involved in efforts to combat human trafficking.

The organizers are using the momentum of the Olympic Games bring attention to human trafficking. "Even as the athletes prepare for their arrival in the United Kingdom in pursuit of their dream of winning gold, other men and women are being forced into coming to the country in search of a better future, only to find that for them there is only ever one winner - their trafficker," reads the
GIFT box website.

Follow the Olympics, GIFT boxes will be available for communities all around the UK and abroad. Community centres, schools, businesses, and all other groups will be able to host a box for a chosen period to create their own awareness-raising project around the GIFT box.